Questions from history

I am not a great student of history, and I wonder, were there people in Germany in the 1930s who saw Adolph Hitler as a crass, arrogant buffoon? Were there people who viewed the fiery, unhinged support he received from fellow citizens with equal parts alarm and bewilderment?

Adolph Hitler was a great orator, a profound bigot, and a supreme agitator of people’s long-simmering biases and real-world fears; his audiences, all too willing to be whipped into a frenzy of righteous determination. I see why people were ready to fight, kill, and die for Adolph Hitler.

But, Donald Trump? The man comes across as a used car salesman with a fifty-year grudge. An openly sexist, race-baiting, whiner, President Trump’s narcissism is so profound that he has spent four years trying to tarnish and tear down everything President Barack Obama represented and put in place during his administration.

Since losing the election, President Donald Trump has done everything he can to ensure that President-elect Joe Biden’s transition is as fraught and complicated as possible. Adolph Hitler didn’t have the chance for rebuttal; he offed himself after watching his ultimate power and world domination aims fail. What would it have looked like, minus the war crimes tribunal and execution? A desperate scrabbling after lost powers, a truth-twisting refusal to accept his defeat? And who and how many would stand alongside him angrily claiming they had been wronged and demanding recourse or else? And for what?

Jennifer Adams

Spokane